If my 3D printer has a problem, it’s not working properly.
When my 2D printer throws a fit, it’s because it’s doing its job of being a vicious piece of shit perfectly.
Important difference.
3D printer: failed the print because you tried to print a whole ass gun in 30 minutes. 2D printer: failed the print because you tried to print a picture of a duck and the DRM detected it as a copyrighted image.
The thing is, we definitely could have 100% reliable printers with good reparabilty, but capitalism gotta capitalism
Just get a color laser printer, learn how to refill toner carts and buy or flash the chips. Even a monkey can do that! /s
Scraping those fucking chips off the cartridges like a crackhead scraping resin is a nightmare.
we have nailed 2D printers. enshittification in the name of profits ruined them. i recommed epson eco-tank printers by the way. no subscription and one 10€ bottle lasts for hundreds of pages.
Well, lets not forget hidden codes on printed paper so rhey could be traced back to a specific device. Thats not really nailing it since that was before enshittification.
Some 3D printer companies tried enshittifying, like DaVinci. Fortunately, they got out maneuvered by companies making printers that were almost cheap garbage, but just good enough, like Creality.
A lot of that has to do with open sourcing the designs, and that it doesn’t take a major research arm to design a 3d printer. Getting a 2d printer to align ink to 300dpi is pretty difficult, and even more so with color. 300dpi isn’t even that impressive. That industry is tied up in patents and trade secrets, and it’s difficult for a new competitor to emerge. Conversely, I know people who designed top notch 3d printers out of their personal workshop.
hey, leave my ender 3s alone. they’re trying their best. honestly, these machines are unstoppable if you’re willing to spend money on spare parts every once in a while. my 3 pro can print TPU with the stock bowden setup and an upgraded extruder.
People often shit on the cheap Creality printers, and sure, the quality control is not great (and don’t expect any customer support), but I’m having significantly fewer problems with my Ender 3 V2 at home than we are at work with our Snapmaker 2.0 A350 (costs about 5-10 times at much).
I’ve had my V2 for a few years, and after getting a textured PEI spring steel build plate and changing the bed springs, it’s been super reliable and consistent. No other upgrades needed so far.
Isn’t it the printer that brick itself when the purge-sponge is ultimately soaked with ink ?
mine has worked for years, and it went through 2 refills without issue. even if it did, cleaning a sponge sounds like easy maintenance.
That one is a hard limit. Changing does not clear the error. Tho people have hacked around it if I remember correctly.
I rarely print anything but when I do it is almost always documents.
I bought a brother laser printer. It’s only black and white but it has been flawless on every device I want to print from. I expect the starter cartridge to last me at least another year and any replacement will have a larger capacity.
The ink jet that got replaced would have had at least 3 cartridge changes by now and those easily cost more than what I spent on the laser printer.
It’s funny because 3d printers are cheaper to purchase, maintain, and supply for
Totally doable, use a multicolor printer and print it like 3 layers thick - you’ll get thin flexible plastic sheets.
Not actually practical, but totally doable lol
Just do a midprint filament swap… Looking at getting into TPU at the moment, it might actually be a fun way to have my kid hand something short in. 3 layers of white, 0.12mm per layer, swap to black and print 3 layers more. I’d be concerned about stringing and delamination. But it’s pretty close to the heated bed, so mostly stringing. Fuckit we’re going to try!
With how much more reliable and easy to use 3d printers are, I’m saying we need to move on to 4d printers
I mean you could. It would be slower more expensive and less practical than inkjet or laser printing, but there is nothing keeping you from fixing a piece of paper in the 3d printer and have it “write” on it with the molten plastic.
